Sudden huge problems with new PC, need help diagnosing.

[Zikar]

I built a new PC very recently and it's been working fine, lots of fun in Cyberpunk.
However, today it just "stopped working."

There are no errors codes or anything so I can only describe the symptoms.

I was playing Cyberpunk and the game crashed. Tried to restart it and the entire system locked up. Restarted the system and Windows updated.
Windows would no lock up not long after starting. Would sometimes show minor graphical artefacts and claimed that it was blocked from accessing the graphics hardware.

I system restored to an older version of Windows. Windows now initially boots up more or less correctly, but some programs will cause it to hang. Trying to update nVidia experience just didn't work (it got stuck on "Preparing to Install") and using OCCT made Windows hang.

I'd appreciate any help in trying to diagnose what is wrong so that I can get it fixed, or have parts replaced.

My system:

Spoiler

MSI MAG B760 Tomahawk WIFI (LGA 1700) DDR5 ATX Motherboard

Order MSI MAG B760 Tomahawk WIFI (LGA 1700) DDR5 ATX Motherboard now online and benefit from fast delivery.

www.overclockers.co.uk

Zotac GeForce RTX 4090 Trinity 24GB GDDR6X PCI-Express Graphics Card

Order Zotac GeForce RTX 4090 Trinity 24GB GDDR6X PCI-Express Graphics Card now online and benefit from fast delivery.

www.overclockers.co.uk

Seagate FireCuda 530 2TB SSD PCIe Gen4 NVMe M.2 Solid State Drive (ZP2000GM3A013)

Order Seagate FireCuda 530 2TB SSD PCIe Gen4 NVMe M.2 Solid State Drive (ZP2000GM3A013) now online and benefit from fast delivery.

www.overclockers.co.uk

Intel Core i7-13700F (Raptor Lake) Socket LGA1700 Processor - Retail

Order Intel Core i7-13700F (Raptor Lake) Socket LGA1700 Processor - Retail now online and benefit from fast delivery.

www.overclockers.co.uk

Thermaltake Toughpower GF3 1000W Fully Modular Native PCIE 5 80 Plus Gold Power Supply

Order Thermaltake Toughpower GF3 1000W Fully Modular Native PCIE 5 80 Plus Gold Power Supply now online and benefit from fast delivery.

www.overclockers.co.uk

Corsair Vengeance 64GB (2X32GB) DDR5 PC5-41600C40 5200MHz Dual Channel Kit - Black (CMK64GX5M2B5200C40

Order Corsair Vengeance 64GB (2X32GB) DDR5 PC5-41600C40 5200MHz Dual Channel Kit - Black (CMK64GX5M2B5200C40 now online and benefit from fast delivery.

www.overclockers.co.uk

 

[Glanza]

Test SSD https://www.seagate.com/gb/en/support/downloads/seatools/

 

[Zikar]

Test SSD https://www.seagate.com/gb/en/support/downloads/seatools/

I used this and no errors came up.

 

[Jamin280672]

I used this and no errors came up.

Does sound like hard drive too me, but the root cause could also be ram, do you have another drive you can try ? And run memtest

EDIT, sorry what's the system specs ?

 

[Zikar]

I don't have a spare drive but I could probably get memtest to run. Again, the system seems to stay stable until I try to do certain things.

I put my hardware in the spoiler tag.

 

[Dg834man]

You got another graphics card to test with, artifacts and the blocked from accessing the graphics hardware popup sounds like the 4090 crapped the bed.

 

[JollyJamma]

I built a new PC very recently and it's been working fine, lots of fun in Cyberpunk.
However, today it just "stopped working."

There are no errors codes or anything so I can only describe the symptoms.

I was playing Cyberpunk and the game crashed. Tried to restart it and the entire system locked up. Restarted the system and Windows updated.
Windows would no lock up not long after starting. Would sometimes show minor graphical artefacts and claimed that it was blocked from accessing the graphics hardware.

I system restored to an older version of Windows. Windows now initially boots up more or less correctly, but some programs will cause it to hang. Trying to update nVidia experience just didn't work (it got stuck on "Preparing to Install") and using OCCT made Windows hang.

I'd appreciate any help in trying to diagnose what is wrong so that I can get it fixed, or have parts replaced.

My system:

Spoiler

MSI MAG B760 Tomahawk WIFI (LGA 1700) DDR5 ATX Motherboard

Order MSI MAG B760 Tomahawk WIFI (LGA 1700) DDR5 ATX Motherboard now online and benefit from fast delivery.

www.overclockers.co.uk

Zotac GeForce RTX 4090 Trinity 24GB GDDR6X PCI-Express Graphics Card

Order Zotac GeForce RTX 4090 Trinity 24GB GDDR6X PCI-Express Graphics Card now online and benefit from fast delivery.

www.overclockers.co.uk

Seagate FireCuda 530 2TB SSD PCIe Gen4 NVMe M.2 Solid State Drive (ZP2000GM3A013)

Order Seagate FireCuda 530 2TB SSD PCIe Gen4 NVMe M.2 Solid State Drive (ZP2000GM3A013) now online and benefit from fast delivery.

www.overclockers.co.uk

Intel Core i7-13700F (Raptor Lake) Socket LGA1700 Processor - Retail

Order Intel Core i7-13700F (Raptor Lake) Socket LGA1700 Processor - Retail now online and benefit from fast delivery.

www.overclockers.co.uk

Thermaltake Toughpower GF3 1000W Fully Modular Native PCIE 5 80 Plus Gold Power Supply

Order Thermaltake Toughpower GF3 1000W Fully Modular Native PCIE 5 80 Plus Gold Power Supply now online and benefit from fast delivery.

www.overclockers.co.uk

Corsair Vengeance 64GB (2X32GB) DDR5 PC5-41600C40 5200MHz Dual Channel Kit - Black (CMK64GX5M2B5200C40

Order Corsair Vengeance 64GB (2X32GB) DDR5 PC5-41600C40 5200MHz Dual Channel Kit - Black (CMK64GX5M2B5200C40 now online and benefit from fast delivery.

www.overclockers.co.uk

Reseat the CPU.

Take it out, put it back in, shift it around a little to make sure that it’s properly seated and then re torque the socket.

Reseat RAM too.

Also try a fresh copy of windows.

 

[Zikar]

I've started to get square artefacts when in windows now, specifically on transparent parts of the UI. I'm pretty convinced that it's the GPU now.

 

[freddie64]

What drives are you using?

Is the OS on a old drive?

As JollyJamma said, try a fresh copy of windows.

 

[Zikar]

No, all brand new stuff, brand new Windows etc.

 

[wookiee87]

Any type of graphical artifacting on the windows desktop suggets to me your gpu may be the problem, you mention that the issue starts when doing certian actions, would that be when trying to launch anything graphically intensive like a game or playing a video via youtube etc?, if your able to try the 4090 in another system and if you get the same issue then i'd say the 4090 is broken.

How is your case airflow, with a 4090 it's very important to have good airflow in a case as at full chat the 4090 can pull 450-600w and all that heat has to be removed pretty quick or else the card and other components will warm up pretty quick.

If you have a spare gpu try that in your built system and see if everything works as it should, if so i'd look to rma the 4090

 

[Zikar]

Yeah when I tried to stress test the GPU the system hung. As for heat etc I've been keeping an eye on temperatures, at idle the card was in the 40c range and full load the card was high 60c-low 70c.

However, I've noticed since I've gotten these issues the idle temp dropped to the 20c range. I'm not sure what that indicates but it was peculiar and makes me think something stopped working.

 

[wookiee87]

Yeah when I tried to stress test the GPU the system hung. As for heat etc I've been keeping an eye on temperatures, at idle the card was in the 40c range and full load the card was high 60c-low 70c

However, I've noticed since I've gotten these issues the idle temp dropped to the 20c range. I'm not sure what that indicates but it was peculiar and makes me think something stopped working.

the core temps of the gpu wont be the problem, its what temp the ram went too, most aircooled 4090's the ram will run in the upper 80's to mid 90's under load, and if allowed to go highter it can bassically cook the memory chips, you will get a game freeze and the pc will behave very odd. in worst case when you get to the desktop, there will be colourful artifacting all over the screen with space invador like images all over, that means you have a dead gpu!

with regard to the idle temp being so low are the fans of the gpu spinning, if so that will explain why the card is cool, if not i'd reinstall the driver, use DDU (display driver uninstall) when the old driver is gone install a fresh graphics driver and see if the card will work, if not and you get the same problems its time to rma the 4090

 

[Zikar]

So, reseated stuff, got OCCT running and tried the 3D stability test on my GPU, it starts drawing power, then power drops and then the test itself crashed.

 

[pastymuncher]

Have you checked the 4090's connector for signs of melting?

 

[wookiee87]

So, reseated stuff, got OCCT running and tried the 3D stability test on my GPU, it starts drawing power, then power drops and then the test itself crashed.

How far does the power number drop to, is it 100% down to 0% or something else, as pastymuncher as above suggests check the power plug for any signs of melting, check card and cable carefully

 

[Zikar]

Oh yeah, I checked the plugs, I'd already heard about the 4090 sometimes melting that and it's not melted.

I'll have to recheck the exact numbers, but it looked liked what you'd expect from idle and stability testing.

 

[wookiee87]

Oh yeah, I checked the plugs, I'd already heard about the 4090 sometimes melting that and it's not melted.

I'll have to recheck the exact numbers, but it looked liked what you'd expect from idle and stability testing.

It's sound like a card issue to me

 

[Zikar]

Update: Decided to give it another shot. Reseat, rolled back windows, safe mode, DDU, update Windows etc etc etc, restart after each step to make sure it all takes etc etc.

Seems to be working now. 20 minutes on OCCT stability test and an hour in Cyberpunk and it all ran smoothly.

I have no idea what caused the issue but I can only guess maybe Windows trying to update automatically during a crash just mucked up some drivers.
Even while I was trying to boot into safe mode Windows is trying to auto-update and crap, failing, undoing, kicking me back into Windows regular, not safe mode etc.

I think I let my anxiety get the better of me and not test everything super thoroughly and instead assuming the worst. Anyway, thanks for the help guys, hopefully there won't be any more issues going forward.

 

[Zikar]

Well, I'm back, worked fine for two days, turned it on this morning and getting BSODs, square artifacting, Cyberpunk won't launch without the system crashing and running OCCT's stability test causes it to stop after less than a minute and the screen to go black.

Edit: Wondering why redoing the drivers worked at all. I'm just confused at this point.